Nostalgic holiday ephemera

In mid-December I spent some time at my sister's home in California where she's collected our family's most well-worn antique ornaments, along with other well-loved ornaments rescued from thrift shops, and used them to decorate a special tree. The sight of this tree really took me back to thoughts of our childhood, particularly the influence of my Grandmother Dorothy and her love of all things victorian and decorative. 

Dorothy's presents were always designed to be admired over the long days before we were allowed to open them... and then, we almost hated to ruin the effect by tearing them apart. Even when we were very young, these gifts were always opened with awe and reverence! She used parts of old cards, ribbons, sequins, doilies, and gilded gold trimmings to create special decorative scenes for the fronts of packages, her own gift tags, and holiday cards. Some portions of her decorations still reside in my Christmas wrapping box and are recycled each year onto special packages. In my studio I have a box of her "ingredients." Looking back now, I can see that she used the elements of collage in all of her decorative endeavors and I am even more grateful for her influences on my life, artistic and otherwise. And somehow I also love to wrap packages! Photo below is of "Dottie's" ephemera collection. I'm honored to have it... It's so nostalgic to rummage through.

 

Circles: "simultaneously stable and unstable"

 Question from Gina on my facebook fan page about the collage, "Timeline:" I see lots of images of wheels, tire tracks, circular motion, etc. Do these have particular meaning?"A: "Mostly I see them as references to the cyclical aspect of time, although now that you mention it, perhaps there was some "spinning of wheels" during that period of my life! The collage elements are open to your interpretation... that's part of what makes this so much fun."And just now, I see this great article by Natalie Angier on The Circular Nature of the Universe in the New York Times... worth reading. About the painter Vasily Kandinsky: "The circle, he wrote, is “the most modest form, but asserts itself unconditionally.” It is “simultaneously stable and unstable,” “loud and soft,” “a single tension that carries countless tensions within it.” Lovely ideas — circles and curves are recurring elements in so much of my work.The collage above, "Secondary," is a 4 x 4" study, one of 13 that was submitted to the International Collage Exchange in 2005.(P.S. If you are not already a fan of my art work on facebook, I'd be honored to have you as one!)

Time and balance series

This series was inspired by "Timeline," a collage that came together almost effortlessly and out of the blue— it simply needed to BE. Timeline was originally shown in 2002 as part of an International Collage Exhibition at Kansas State University, curated by Lynda Andrus. 

The work is a meditation of sorts on the passage of time, both linear and cyclical, and the ever-present search/struggle for balance in my life. An ongoing element in this series is the timecard, used in some workplaces for logging time on the job, making up most of the background areas. 

My recent show included five pieces from the time and balance series. I'll post individual images soon so that details are more visible.

 
 

Background patterns

I love patterns of all kinds and often use them as elements in my collages. Here is a photo of the newspaper tax lien listings that make up the background of "Juggling." The tabular format of the type creates a random pattern and every other line has a shaded stripe. The type is about 4 point so you can only read it if you are really close, just names and numbers. The inside of safety envelopes (usually from bills)— along with bits of time cards, to-do lists, and order forms— have also made their way into my work from time to time. I'm always on the lookout for new elements to stash in the studio for use "someday." This explains the chaotic but bountiful state of my studio!